His Royal Highness Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman announced the return of Saudi oil supplies to what they were before Aramco's Abqaiq and Khurais factories were targeted.
This came at the beginning of the press conference held by the Ministry of Energy in Jeddah tonight. “I wish you good news from King Salman and the Crown Prince that supplies will return to what they were,” he said, indicating that Aramco has a large storage capacity internally and around the world, and that the Kingdom has established strategic storage for its use in critical cases, stressing that Aramco will fulfill its oil obligations from reserve stocks.
His Highness assured that the Kingdom's oil exports will not decrease this month. Consequently, income will not decrease, and that there will be untapped production capacity before the end of this month. He also called for global cooperation to protect energy markets, achieve security and safety, indicating that the sabotage action against Aramco is not covered by insurance companies because it is considered an "act of war."
He also indicated that hundreds of Saudi retirees contacted Aramco to volunteer for help, and former Aramco employees called from various countries of the world to offer help.
In response to a question about the impact of this targeting on Aramco's IPO, His Excellency Mr. Yasir Al-Rumayyan, Chairman of Aramco's Board of Directors, said that targeting the Abqaiq and Khurais factories will not stop Aramco's preparation for the public offering, which will take place at any time during the next 12 months.
For his part, Engineer Amin Al-Nasser, CEO of Aramco confirmed that Aramco is the most reliable company in the world, and that it took less than seven hours to put out the fires after the attacks. He said that no company in the world is able to overcome such an attack in a short period as Aramco did, indicating that what was withdrawn from oil reserves will be compensated by the end of the month.
It is worth noting that immediately after the Minister of Energy announced the return of Saudi supplies, the price of Brent crude recorded a decline of 8 percent.
